Cardiff and Vale College and Pembrokeshire College have been awarded joint first at this year’s WorldSkills UK national finals.
Welsh colleges dominated the top of the medal table, which this year featured 12 colleges taking the top five positions on medal points. Only three were English colleges.
This week’s skills competitions saw over 400 learners and apprentices participating in 47 skills after two days of gruelling tasks in their chosen specialisms.
Both Cardiff and Pembrokeshire colleges won 13 total medal points each, taking first spot in the league table. They were followed by Scotland’s New College Lanarkshire and Northern Ireland’s Southern Regional College, which each got 12 medal points.
A gold medal is worth four points, a silver is worth three points, a bronze is worth two and a highly commended place scores one.
Learners from Cardiff and Vale College took home gold medals in automotive body repair and network infrastructure technician, one silver in heavy vehicle technology, and two highly commended in the beauty therapist and IT support technician contests.
Meanwhile, Pembrokeshire College students won gold in culinary arts, two silver in restaurant service and beauty therapy practitioner, as well as a bronze in welding and highly commended in the metal fabricator skill.
Cheshire College South and West was the highest ranking English college, placing joint fourth with ten medal points alongside Wales’ Bridgend College and Grwp Llandrillo Menai.
With nine medal points, Burnley College and East Coast College came joint fifth with Coleg Cambria and NPTC Group of Colleges.
A foundation skills medal ceremony was held to celebrate competitors with SEND in eight national competition finals held today.
See the full winner’s list here
Jacqui Smith, minister for skills, said:”These exceptional young people showcase the very best of UK talent and represent the future of our economy, and I would like to congratulate them all on their outstanding achievements.”
Peter Heggie, a digital construction competitor from New College Lanarkshire, won gold as well as Callum Patience for mechanical engineering: CAD.
Southern Regional College’s duo Ross Graham and Carter McKnight won gold in mechatronics and automotive refinishing champion Jack Harvison was also awarded gold.
Apprentice Toby Moulder, from APM Fire and Security, won gold in electronic fire and security systems, told FE Week about how he thought he performed.
“I felt like it went brilliantly. I managed to have surprisingly quite a lot of time left to triple check everything. So I made sure everything was 100 per cent, and luckily, I’ve come home with the gold,” he said.
Other gold medal winners were the digital media production team from North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, Airbus UK’s aircraft maintenance apprentice Robert Jones and Belal Al Haka, automotive body repair winner from Cardiff and Vale College.
Meanwhile, in the plumbing skill, Dillon Newton from Cornwall College Group won gold, Jackson Gill from New College Durham won silver, while Jack Fenton from Belfast Metropolitan College and Tristan McGrath from South West College won highly commended awards respectively.
Speaking to FE Week at the ceremony, Newton said the competitions have inspired him to help the next generation of plumbers,
“Obviously I’d like to finish my apprenticeship and then I would quite like to stay involved in the college in more of maybe a mentorship role,” he said.
High praise for high-flyers
178 winners were announced after months of local and regional qualifiers and an intense competition spread across South Wales this week.
The 417 finalists were selected from nearly 7,900 registrations from colleges, training providers and a record number of employers this year.
This year’s winners will be invited to start the WorldSkills UK training schedule in preparation for WorldSkills Aichi in Japan in 2028.
Ben Blackledge, chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said: “Congratulations to all those who participated in the WorldSkills UK national competitions. They have demonstrated their skills at the highest level, and these exceptional young people represent the future of our economy.
“They are the new generation of high-flyers that will give UK employers a competitive edge. Our competitions, based on global standards, play a vital role in developing the skills that will drive investment, create jobs, and fuel economic growth.”
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